🛠 Quality of Life Suggestions [Last Updated: Apr 20th '19]

General Discussion
1

The following is a list of suggestions for QoL changes for OW and OW characters, these suggestions have come from different sources such as reddit, the forums,personal experience and prominent streamers.
Where possible I have verified the issues suggested still exist.

Click the triangle next to a recommendation for a better explanation on why a change is recommended

I will try to only list QoL changes that have minimal to no impact on balance but improve the experience.
I’ve written them a little like patch notes because I believe it saves time for the reader.

Maps-

  • Make the Backgrounds on control point maps during 'assemble your team' always match the portion of map about to be played....

    Currently, depending on which side you are spawning you will get a different part of the map as the background that doesn’t match where you are about to play for this round

General-

  • Change the 'I need healing' notification for Dead Allies

    When a player is dead they no longer need healing, newer players might be looking to heal an ally who has already died causing them confusion. At the same time there is no ingame way to communicate how long until you respawn so it would make sense that this notification changes to respawn time for dead players to help keep their team informed or some other useful info

  • Add an 'Auto Join Competitive Only' as an additional team voice chat option....

    Functioning the same as ‘ON’ but acts like ‘AUTO JOIN’ when playing competitive game modes

  • Add an opacity option for the ingame dead ally portraits [Added in 1.32]

  • Any Further UI customization would be welcome

    Common recommendations are to be able to scale the UI,move UI components or alter opacity of UI

  • Render Ally Health Bars through walls when the health bar is blocked by a wall but the ally character is not behind the wall enough to display their outline....

    This usually affects tanks (because they are taller) who stand in a doorway. Their health bar will be behind the wall and blocked by the door frame so there is no way for a healer to determine if that player needs healing.

PC Specific-

  • Make the start bar icon flash when a player is tabbed out and the round is about to start...

    Currently the tray icon will only flash when the game is joined not when the round is starting. Some players tab out during the waiting period for the round to begin and miss a few seconds. Athena will count down the start of the game but if the option Play sounds in background set to off or is the player is otherwise unable to hear game audio then they have no indicator that they are about the miss the beginning of the game.

Career Profile-

  • Add a way for players to still show some career information if they wish when the profile is private

    Community recommends a sort of ‘showcase’ where they could pick things such as favourite heros to display.

  • Add a stat on the career profile to display how much shield HP is regenerated each 10 minutes of gameplay for Symmetra, Zenyatta and Zarya.
  • Add to career profile per-ability breakdowns for hero damage and hero healing...

    for example this might help a dva player realise their micro missile damage is very low so they can work on using them more effectively in future games

Ana-

  • Ana should notify a specific ally that she is reloading providing she looks directly at them when she starts reloading and they are not at full health. (no other allies hear this to avoid voice spam)
  • Add separate custom reticle options for scoped....

    Allowing her to have a different custom reticle while scoped vs when not scoped

Baptiste-

  • Baptiste should notify a specific ally that he is reloading providing he looks directly at them when he starts reloading and they are not at full health. (no other allies hear this to avoid voice spam)
  • Add an option to swap the Build and Cancel buttons....

    This way players can rebind his Secondary fire to left click but still use Left click to confirm placement of Amplification Matrix

  • Add distinct noise for Destruction of Immortality Field
  • Add Health UI for Immorality Field....

    Similar to Torbs turret, this would help the player to more easy assess how quickly the device will perish and if he needs to call it on comms before it is destroyed - This I believe should be default for characters who only have one summon with HP in their kit (making Sym the exception)

  • Automatically start a reload when ammo is both 0/45 and 0/10 even if automatic reload is disabled.

Bastion-

  • Add sound effects to indicate ammunition is running low

Widowmaker-

  • Add separate custom reticle options for scoped....

    Allowing her to have a different custom reticle while scoped vs when not scoped

Ashe-

  • Add separate custom reticle options for scoped....

    Allowing her to have a different custom reticle while scoped vs when not scoped

Hanzo-

  • Add separate custom reticle options for Storm Arrow....

    Allowing him to have a different custom reticle when Storm Arrow is the active firing mode vs regular fire mode

Mccree-

  • Add an option to swap the Fire and Cancel buttons....

    This way players can rebind his secondary fire to left click but still use left click to confirm he would like to use High Noon


Mei-

  • Add an option to swap the Build and Cancel buttons....

    This way players can rebind her Secondary fire to left click but still use Left click to confirm a wall placement

  • Remove the visual effect of Blizzard in areas where the freezing effect is being blocked by Line of Sight blocking obstacles (Terrain/Walls)

Zenyatta-

  • Remove the visual effect of Transcendence in areas where the healing is being blocked by Line of Sight blocking obstacles (Terrain/Enemy barriers/Walls)

Soldier 76-

  • Remove the visual effect of Biotic Field in areas where the healing is being blocked by Line of Sight blocking obstacles (Terrain/Walls)

Doomfist-

  • Add option to rebind the cancel rocket punch button

Sombra-

  • Make the destroy translocator button need to be held down for 0.5 seconds, reduce cooldown by 0.5 seconds to compensate for the delay....

    This allows Sombra players to tap F repeatedly when approaching Sym teleporter without accidentally destroying their translocator

  • Improve visual clarity of hacked opponents for Sombra’s teammates [Addressed in 1.34]

Torbjörn-

  • Make the destroy turret button need to be held down for 0.5 seconds, reduce cooldown by 0.5 seconds to compensate for the delay.

    (This allows Torbjörn players to tap F repeatedly when approaching Symmetra teleporter without accidentally destroying their turret)

Symmetra-

  • Teleporter will now prioritise putting the exit UP on a ledge if the player aims the reticle at the upper lip of that ledge [Addressed in 1.35]

  • Add an option to swap the Deploy and Cancel buttons....

    This way players can rebind her secondary fire to left click but still use left click to confirm teleporter placement


  • Reduce the size of collision box for Sentry's for specifically the purposes of attaching to walls....

    Stops them attaching to nearby walls unintentionally, providing the player with more precision but leaves the overall hitbox the same size so they are just as easy to kill for enemy players


  • Provide Symmetra with the ability to destroy one of her turrets by looking at it and holding down Interact for 0.5 seconds....

    This allows her to destroy a misplaced Sentry without having to destroy good Sentry placements to replace it


Reaper-

  • Shadowstep should prioritise putting the player UP on a ledge if the player aims the reticle at the upper lip of that ledge [Addressed in 1.35]
  • Shadowstep should be able to interrupt the reload animation....

    Reaper would still need to reload when he arrives the other side.

  • Add an option to swap the Teleport and Cancel buttons....

    This way players can rebind his secondary fire to left click but still use left click to confirm the location he wants to Shadowstep


  • Pressing Wraith keybind a second time should not exit wraith, only primary fire should....

    you can still leave wraith early by using primary fire but players who spam press this defensive will not accidently leave wraith early with this change

Thanks for Reading.

If anyone else has QoL recommendations then I will add them to the list

I am trying to avoid anything too close to a direct balance change so suggestions that could conceivably be considered a definite balance change will not be added.

30 Likes
2

When an enemy is hacked it displays purple sugar skulls above their heads just like hacked health packs

17 Likes
3

These all sound pretty dang solid to me.

I kinda think the shield regen stat wouldn’t result in any meaningful data, but I admit I’m sometimes curious to see just how much I’ve regened on Zen after a long game.

But yeah, solid list all around. These are minor tweaks, but they really do make a difference. I also appreciate that this list isn’t just a bunch of actual buffs. So many people completely misinterpret the concept of ‘quality of life’ on the forums.

1 Like
4

Doesn’t it say which portion of the map it will be in the top left hand corner? Like if you’re on Ilios, it will say Illios:The Ruins or Ilios:The Lighthouse in the corner. Doesn’t it? Did I dream this?

5

I’d argue that Moira is in need of this far more than ana. When ana reloads she’s not healing for a second, when moira depletes her resource she’s not healing for far longer

6

Moira already has her “not ready”, and “I need to recharge” voicelines that play when she runs out of lemonade.

1 Like
7

You are correct, the maps do state the area you are about to play on by name however the background doesn’t always match the area you are about to play on.

For example, on Nepal: Shrine one of the teams will have the background be from the ‘Village’ section of the map.

Some players are more visual and remember maps but don’t always remember the name, I actually had to look up what the 3rd part of Nepal was called to type that example and I have played thousands of hours.

If you show me any part of the map I know exactly where it is and how it will play which is why I find it confusing - Sometimes I pick a character and have to swap it the instant the assembly phase is over because I looked at the background when we spawn in and go ‘oh wait, this map’.

Not a super big problem because we still have 30 seconds to make a swap but it would imo be a nice change.

8

I did not include Moira in the recommendations as she already has a voiceline that plays when she runs out of her healing resource.

Maybe our suggestion here is to improve audio clarity for support callouts in general.

1 Like
9

I have now added this to the list alongside an additional Sombra recommendation.

Cheers.

1 Like
10

broken hooks should have a 4 sec cd

11

Aside from characters, theres different changes to game play I would personally make.

  1. Introduce an attribute based system in the game which would allow different character customizations and endless possibilities, of game play strategy. This would help curb some reliances on meta strategies, curb the toxicity of not running said meta strategies, and also help the developers push out need buffs/nerfs in a more fashionable time frame.

  2. Character Mastery, Give certain benefits/rewards for having x amount of time on a a hero and also have tier levels of time for each hero. This would encourage people to play more characters they are uncomfortable with, and give them a better game experience by being a well rounded player.

  3. Factions, sort of like guild where players can group up and earn awards/achievements for being in this faction. Also Blizzard could host tournaments based around these factions that aren’t solely pro level and be fun for the whole community as a whole.

  4. The Arcade mode, I’d like a see need modes released every 3-6 months to a point where its not the same old stagnant modes being recycled in the arcade area.

12

Long as they fix the teleporters placement issues and make it ignore railings and break them where its placed ill be happy

1 Like
13

Hmm, this is actually not a bad recommendation.

The railing do hinder several abilities in the game, Reapers Shadowstep is placed very similarly to Symmetra teleport so he could potentially also benefit from this.

If they take my recommendation and make the upper lip of a ledge automatically prioritise placing the teleporter up on the ledge then they might make it so that it also automatically places on top of any railing if there is a railing present.

Functionally destroying the railings would not be necessary if the targeting worked like that but then again maybe it should destroy the railings if only to match how various other abilities demolish railings with very little effort.

14

Bastion
Aim angle doesn’t stop anymore if he tries to rotate over 90 degress upwards

15

Altering how bastion is able to aim feels a little like it’s stretching into a balance change rather than a QoL change.

Part of the Bastion fight in close range is usually built around jumping over bastion and forcing him to deal with the difficult angle.

I personally think Bastion needs more attention than some QoL changes, he most likely needs a rework.

16

This looks like a very extensive suggestion, definitely out of the range of quality of life suggestions and more in the vein of revamping the game.

I’m personally not a fan of any sort of attribute system for OW, its a very fundamental change and it could potentially remove a lot of the aspects I like about the game.

Guilds,New Arcade modes and adding some form of cosmetic progression to characters are certainly ideas worth exploring but I think they are a bit out of place in this particular thread and could probably do with their own separate discussions.

17

I think this might have a reasonable amount of impact for Roadhog, it feels to me a bit more like a balance change than a quality of life change.

I want to focus in this thread on changes with lower balance impact or ideally no balance impact.

It’s not always possible because making something more reliable might have a side effect on balance but in general I consider QoL to be how the player interacts with a game element or clearing up an aspect of gameplay that is not easily understandable.

I am definitely looking forward to Roadhog getting some love but I think I’ll avoid adding this to the list as i think it’s slightly out of scope.

18

Could they allow me to switch where my health bar is? I would like to have my abilities and health in one spot so I can see it all at once

1 Like
19

I would make a suggestion of being able to toggle the view for the placement of TP/Shadowstep.

If you use your toggle key, it will go from the characters perspective, to the targeting perspective (think top down like DF Ult) this would allow you to use the full range (25m for Symmetra, 35m for Reaper) without being constrained to line of sight.

20

I actually really like this suggestion but to me it sounds slightly closer to a balance change than quality of life even though it’s clearly intended QoL.

If you are able to view from the targeting perspective then you could in theory use the targeting perspective to scout information such as player locations, a function not currently available.
If you can place the exit location somewhere without LoS then this is a direct upgrade over it’s current restrictions.

There are also tradeoffs for your idea as well which is why I really like it, if you are toggled to control the exit location then your character is very vulnerable to being shot so it’s hardly an outright buff.